Frost damage 2011/2012, final damage report

Although most of our Prunus Lusitanica in the frond garden had some or major damage, after careful pruning, all are back in good shape again. Or growing into the desired direction. The photo to the left shows an example of this damage top-right.

The previous is also true for the damaged Prunus Laurocerasus "Otto Luyken". It takes some time but now they are green again.

After an extreme delay we got our winter. February 1, 2012, we got about 20 cm (8 inch) snow. We also had the pleasure to be the coldest spot in the country with -22,9 °C (-9.2F).

Now 29th June 2012, we can make up the final damage report.

The Euonymus Japonica "compactus" in the main-garden (next photo) did not survive and we had to remove it completely. I have not as such replaced it, but instead want to have lower plants at that spot. Taxus bacaata, believe it or not, as a high growing groundcover around a kept very small, broad leaved Prunus Lusitanica.

The damaged bamboo Sasaella masamuneana also has more or less recovered with some help by careful pruning and thinning.

Laurus nobilis is known not winter-hardy in our climate-zone, here we just took the risk. Everything we saw of the Laurus nobilis in the left side garden was dead (above left) and was pruned back to ground level (below).

The radical tuber with the roots was left (left) and started growing again (below).

This time we will keep it very low and small, but it does great.

Now the sad news. Two of our garden proud have almost, but not completely died. The Wisteria sinensis on the main garden and our Ulmus parvifolia "seijn" in the front garden.

Where the Wisteria mostly starts developing flower buts in march/april and blooms around the end of April beginning of May (Abundant bloom of our Wisteria sinensis), the Wisteria sinensis did not show any sign of live and showed dead until the end of May (this post top photo). In March and April it had lots of small buts, but these where from November last year and did not change shape or size. Well eventually they got smaller and dried. Any twig I touched broke off with a snappy sound.

The Wisteria has growen as a tree and has three main branches. By the end of May they all showed life signs... Low to the ground, but life ! At the very bottom of the main trunk some buds started growing by mid May and that growth was a starting point for a second life.

Close to the ground the main trunk was literally exploding with new growth (above), so indeed it will take some years but the roots are okay and the plant will survive.

Both, side trunks shown signs of life, and are now, end of June, developing good growth. The main trunk is dead from about 30cm (12 inches) above the ground but has some strong twigs (above right). I made a selection of new twigs that are left on from the "explosion" and lead them along the old, dead wood. Now some have reached the top !!

So next year I expect some flowering gratitude in return.

The other sad story is the Ulmus parvifolia "seijn" (Elm-tree). This, I think, is not directly related to frost damage but it got Dutch elm disease. There was some confusion due to the timing in relation to the frost damage. I will write about that later, in a separate post.

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